Page 80 of Twisted Bonds
thirty-nine
Mira
I cross my arms, trying to keep the chill in my heart as I glance at Tairyn, nursing what is surely a broken jaw on my blue chaise lounge. I knew someone would hit him. Considered doing it myself. The room turned feral when he told us I’m probably getting sacrificed, but I just didn’t expect it to be Bobble.
Then he dragged him to my suite of rooms, away from the Malicryn fireplace, just in case she pops in again. The air around us is like a thick fog that refuses to dissipate. I glance around at Sunder, Bobble, and Callum, each of them eying Tairyn with barely concealed skepticism as we huddle on the other side of the room to discuss our next move.
No wonder he was always in the study. He was waiting for his ex to call, to see how the plan to kill me was going.
The strong, unrelenting breeze whips in through the always-open balcony, carrying with it the sharp chill of the high mountains. They call this place the Western Slopes, where the wind never seems to rest. As I step out onto the balcony and feel the cool air wrap around me, a shiver runs down my spine. But it’s not just from the cold.
Tairyn was going to sell me off to Yurghen the whole time. My stomach churns with disgust.
“So, what should we do with him?” Callum asks no one in particular, pulling my attention back to the men following behind me. Brows furrowed, arms crossed. They look like a group of concerned fathers trying to decide what to do about an unnamed threat at a neighborhood watch meeting.
“Shield him, beat him, leave him for dead.”
I’d think it was a joke if Sunder wasn’t so deadpan. Callum cocks his head to the side, as if considering.
“Not happening.” I interject. “He’s an asshole, but he doesn’t deserve death, you psychopath.”
Sunder’s brown eyes glint with contradiction, but wisely, he keeps his mouth shut for once.
“Besides, we’ll need him eventually to reform Dan’thiel and merge with us,” Bobble says, Sunder nodding in resignation. Callum meets my eye, the conversation between us about refusing to merge replaying in an instant between us. “But that doesn’t mean we can’t make him suffer.”
“Bobble!” I chide. At least he has the decency to look sheepish at my admonishment.
“He was going to give you to our enemies, Mira.”
“I know.”
“We can’t let that go unpunished.”
All three of them start talking at once now, no longer keeping their voices low.
“… leave him here to rot…”
“…more than he deserves.”
“…in that cell where he kept you.”
“I get it!” I shout. “You all want him to suffer terribly, but we’re not doing that. He told us the truth and—” I hesitate. “He’s part of you.”
I turn my back on them, marching up to Tairyn. His posture is slumped, lip bleeding profusely. But his eyes tell me the most about the storm inside him. His eyes, normally glowing with amusement, are dull and lifeless.
“You said Yurghen’s on the move with a force. Where are they going?”
His words are muffled by the jaw, and I motion for Bobble to heal him. A slow trickle of yellow Chroma flows from one of my mate’s to the other. Tairyn takes a deep breath as the healing magic takes hold, knitting the bone back together. He spits out the last of the blood onto the gleaming white marble floor.
“If I knew, I’d tell you. I swear it. They don’t tell me everything.”
Callum throws his hands up in the air with a gesture that says, Can you believe this guy? I guess that’s a universal symbol.
Tairyn’s eyes narrow, and I can practically see the gears turning in his mind.
“Even if that is not true,” Sunder says reluctantly. “Could we really trust any information he gives us?”
“I don’t want to see the Great River destroyed any more than you do. Do you think I’m stupid enough to believe that benefits me in any way?” Tairyn insists, his voice firm, before turning to me with quiet intensity. “Do you truly believe I don’t care for you?”